Illinois state senator
Albert Charles Clark (1868-1929) recognized that
the situation at
John R. Thompson's restaurant, a
diner next to the Iroquois Theater, was too chaotic
for medical triage to be effective. He asked the police to make everyone
except medical people leave, then led physicians in selecting Dr. George Lyston
to direct and organize many dozens of volunteers. See his description of
situation below. One of the physicians who
remained was
Dr. Daniel N. Eisendrath who would at one point
in the next hectic hours look upon the dead body of
a ten year old boy,
Jack Pottlitzer, and recognize the son of a
former patient.

It was one of only a handful of pre-morgue
victim identifications.

Clark, a manufacturer
of dental supplies* at 1035 East 76th St. in
Chicago, intermittently represented Cook County in
the Illinois state senate for several terms from 1902
to 1918.

He and his wife, May
Smith Clark (1871-),
married in 1890. In 1903 they
lived at 7248 Euclic Ave in Chicago. They
had two daughters, Beth (1890-) and Mary (1899-).

Clark’s description of the scene at Thompson’s
restaurant:

"I approached the theater as the maddened crowd was
pouring out the front entrance,” he said. “Appealing
to Charles Truax to go at once through the Reliance
and Columbus Memorial buildings [doctor’s offices]
and summon to Thompson’s restaurant all doctors, I
rushed through the Masonic temple, stopping in the
drugstore on my way and giving orders for all
bandages and salve to be obtained to be sent.

“About twenty-five chorus girls came in first with
their stage clothing partly burned and hair singed.
In a few moments, when the firemen began bringing in
those whose lives were hanging by a thread, the
girls fled.
“Dishes and able equipment were swept to the floor
and bodies were laid on the tables. At least
seventy-five bodies were brought in in a few
minutes. The firemen and officers were struggling
with half-dead persons, looking for places for them
on the tables. Many stood in the aisles holding
forms that were practically lifeless. Excited
friends and relatives rushed in and pandemonium
prevailed. Doctors could not get to the dying.

“The people continued to crowd in and I decided
something must be done. Captain Shippy came in with
a woman on his shoulders and I appealed to him to
make the officers clear the room. Then I addressed
the physicians, asking them to choose someone to be
surgeon in chief. Dr. Frank Lydston was chosen. His
orders that an officer be placed at each table and
that no one but nurses and doctors be permitted
there were immediately announced and carried out by
Captain Shippy. Having regained order, the
physicians organized. I instructed those in charge
to place the dead on the floor between the tables.

"Bodies were stacked. Supplies were received from Truax, Greene & Co., and A.C. Clark & Co., including
tongue forceps, mouth props and oxygen tanks. These
were immediately brought into use. Out of about 175
placed on the tables we were able by the oxygen
equipment to save from twenty-five to thirty. If the
equipment had been at hand when the doctors first
arrived at least twenty-five more would have been
alive today. Those that were placed on the tables
were not all beyond hope.

"About twenty-five were in partly suffocated
condition. Ninety percent of their number were
women, girls and boys. Their waists [corsets?
Waistbands on skirts?] were torn from them and,
doctors holding each arm, others pressed on their
chests, trying to restore respiration. The statement
of officers and firemen that the second and third
balcony outlets into the main entrance had been
locked and had to be battered down brought many
excited remarks from those laboring with the
victims.

“When Captain Shippy returned to the restaurant and
pronounced no more alive we commenced to prepare
those we had revived for trips to the various
hospitals. One woman recognized her little son by
his hair. The child lay in the middle of a pile of
fifteen bodies. A man got to the side of his wife
just as five doctors ceased working, having kept her
alive for at least half an hour. The man found her
dead and the care of him then became a task.

“After those alive had been sent to the hospitals it
took at least an hour for a large force of policemen
to collect the dead. When the last of the bodies was
removed the physicians stood together in the room,
filled with the horror of the scenes through which
they had passed, weeping as if the dead had been
their own.”

Discrepancies and addendum

* His company manufactured gas masks during WWI.

Rescuers work to handle
bodies and victims

John R. Thompson
restaurant Iroquois Theater fire scene

Dr Eisendrath recognized
a victim

Other discussions you might find interesting

Story 1091

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